Santa Fred

(cont.)

(This is it! The grand finale! Hope you enjoyed it!)

5. Christmas Dinner and Presents!

"He p'ay Sada coz real Sada busee." Tad explained to Storm.

"Oh, I see."

"Wan' p'ay with Ibbit?"

"What's an Ibbit?"
"Ibbit!" Tad held up Ribbit and waved his flipper.

"Oh, your frog! Hello there." She took Ribbit from him.

Tad saw Kurt Wagner. "Hi, Ahgoo Fuzzy!"

"Uncle Fuzzy?" Kitty giggled.

"I like being Fuzzy," Kurt said, picking Tad up and nuzzling him.

Tad giggled again and played peekaboo with Kurt.

"Where's the presents, yo?"

"Todd!" Kitty protested.

"What? We don't get any? I got you somethin'!"

"I just meant that you should wait until later for the presents. We're having dinner, then opening presents."
"Ohhhhh. Why didn't ya say so?"

Tad clapped his hands. "P'esent!" he giggled.

"Later, Tad. Not now."

Tad looked a bit disappointed, but took Ribbit over to see Auntie Wanda.
"Wha' w'ong?" he asked her.

Wanda glanced down at Tad and said, "I feel like I shouldn't be here."

"Id okay, Ahdee Baba." said Tad,reaching out to hug her.

"GROUP HUG!" Pietro blurred up beside them, reached out, and squeezed both of them . . . prompting Wanda to yelp "OUCH! Pietro,you're squishing me!"

"Oops!" He loosened the death grip a bit, and stroked Tad's fuzzy hair.

"Dinner's ready!" Jean called from the kitchen.

They put Tad in a high chair. "Where'd you get this?" Todd asked.
Jean blushed, but said nothing.

"Lub Aht Jeen."Tad said.

"I love you too, Tad," Jean said. "I wish you could come live here with us."
"Wha' 'bout To'?"

"Wow,I've never seen a kid so attached to his big brother." Scott said to Evan.

"Bet you wish Alex wasn't so far away, huh?"

"You can say that again."

The seating arrangements had been the biggest problem . . . especially given how huge Fred was. The rivalries between certain X-Men and Brotherhood members also presented a problem. Fortunately, Xavier knew exactly where to put everyone to cause the least amount of problems.

And everyone agreed that Tad should be right between Todd and  Kitty.

"Aht Giggy," Tad sighed.
"I just hope she didn't cook," muttered Pietro under his breath.

Lance heard that, and whacked him under the table.

Something about Tad's presence seemed to have a calming influence on all of them, because Christmas dinner went surprisingly well. Pity Tad didn't come along sooner, Magneto mused when dinner was over.

"P'esents! P'esents!" Tad kept saying to his big brother.

"Yeah, time to open the presents!" Todd leaped into the living room and pounced on the pile of presents under the eight-foot tree. "I'll hand 'em out."
"No!" Tad said. "Sada do!"

Santa?" Evan said, not sure what Tad meant.

Fred lumbered forward. "Hand 'em over, Toad."

Toad sighed. "Sure, I'll be your little elf."

Todd handed the first present to Fred. "Okay, this first one's for Tad."

"Yay!" Tad tried to open the wrapping paper by biting it.
"No, no, Taddy! We don't eat wrapping paper!" Todd took it away and "helped" him open it. "Wait, who's it from?"

"Ahdee Babah." said Tad.

"Let's see what nice thing Auntie Wanda got you."

Much to Tad's delight, it turned out to be a pink frog that looked just like Ribbit. Named, appropriately enough, Pinkie.

"Pinkee!" Tad squealed. He reached for Ribbit. "Ook, Ibbit. Dis Pinkee."

Tad waved Pinkie's flipper at Ribbit and made Ribbit wave back.
"Awww . . . isn't that cute," said Kitty.

"Who's next?" Fred--Santa asked.
Todd picked up the next one off the pile. "To Kitty from Kurt. Oh, look, there's little blue hearts all over--"

"Just give her the package already." Lance sighed.

Fred handed it over. Kitty, looking very embarrassed, opened it carefully . . . and found a beautiful book of poems.

"Ooh! This is nice!" she said, reading the inscription inside. "Where'd you find it?"

"Someone recommended it," Kurt said,with a glance at Rogue.

"OK,"said Toad,"this one's from "us, to Tad."

Tad looked happy he was getting another present. "Tubbies?" he asked Toad.

"Let's see." He ripped the paper off . . . and sure enough, there were Tinky-Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po on the cover of a Teletubbies tape.

"Tubbies!"
Pietro looked bored. "Can someone besides Tad open something?"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "Give Prince Whiney one of his," she said to Fred.

Fred picked up a package marked "To Pietro from Tad".

"Gee, I wonder what this is?"

Tad giggled. Uncle Pietro was funny sometimes.

Pietro opened it . . . and saw a sweater, which Tad had helped Wanda pick out.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Pietro exclaimed. "This is pink!"
Wanda just smiled.

"W'at w'ong, Ahgoo P'etro?"

"I . . . uh, don't look good in pink."
"How's it feel?" Wanda said. "Don't worry, I kept the receipt. I just wanted to see your face."

Pietro rolled his eyes."You've got a sick sense of humor,you know that?"
"Dis Aht Giggee's." Tad said,handing Kitty another package.

"Who's it from?" Kitty asked.

"Ahgoo Scott."

"Wanna help me open it?"

Tad nodded.

Once they had ripped it open, she found a brand-new DVD player. "Wow! You shouldn't have!"
"You've been saying how much you want one, so a couple of us went in on it together . . . and got some discs to go with it."

There was a smaller package with three discs of her favorite movies. "So who else is involved?" Kitty asked.

"Rogue . . ."

"Ah told him to get you that one . . . cause you rented it about a hundred times already," the Southern girl said.

"Thanks, Rogue."

"Jean pitched in for it too," Scott said.

"Where is she?"

Jean, who was way in the back, raised a hand.

"Thanks, Jean!"

"And," Scott continued, "if you'll look over here . . ."

"There's more?" Kitty asked.

"Me see?" said Tad.

Kitty put him up on her lap so he could get a better view.

"This," Scott said, "is a carrying case for your CD player."

"Ooh!" Kitty exclaimed. "Who got me that?" It had cute little anime designs on it.

"The professor . . . but Kurt helped pick it out."

"And it vasn't easy, let me tell you!" said Kurt, remembering the countless hours he'd spent looking over the customized designs on the website.

"Thanks, guys."

"Who's next?"
The gifts went on all afternoon, into the evening. The most amusing gift was a set of talking Teletubbies for Tad. It was a joint gift from Kurt and Evan.

"Tankoo, Ahgoo Ku't, Ahgoo Ebb'n." said Tad, making Dipsy and Tinky-Winky dance on the table.

But the best gift of all was . . .
"Ooh! Kiddee!" Tad opened a large box with air holes all over and found a tiny kitten staring up at him.

The kitten meowed and tentatively reached out a tiny paw . . .

"I think she wants to come out and see you," said Toad.

"Let me help." Fred reached in and held the kitten up in front of Tad.
"Hi, kiddiee." Tad said.

"Mew." The kitten rubbed up against him, which made Tad giggle.
"Kiddee kiss me!"

"What are we gonna call him?" Lance said to Toad.
"Since she's Siamese," Mystique said, "how about Sagwa?"
"What-the?" Toad looked at her funny.
"How do you even know if she's a girl?" Wanda asked.
"The man at the pet shop told me," Mystique said, "when I bought her. She's a purebred Siamese, had all her shots and everything."

"What about Mei Ling?" said Lance.

"That's so cute!" said Kitty.

"May?" Tad said. "Hi, May."
"Mew!"

"Tankoo, Ahdee Miseek." Tad said as he stroked Mei's fur.

"ACHOO!"

Everybody turned toward Pietro, who was wiping his nose.
"What?"

"Kleenex, Pietro?" Mystique said, holding one out.

"Thanks. Ah-CHOOOO!" His head felt like it was about to explode.

"Isn't there anything you can give him to make him stop sneezing?"Wanda complained to Magneto.

"I suppose," he said. "I could try giving him the antihistamine I took earlier. But we have no way of knowing if it will work."

As for Toad and Tad, they were busy playing with Mei.

"Nice kitty." Toad said, stroking Mei's back.
"Nas kiddiee." Tad repeated, listening to Mei purr.

"ACHOO! Nice kitty that's--AH-CHOOOO!--sniff--killing me!" Pietro looked over at his father. "Hey, why aren't you--AHH-CHOOOOO!"

"Oh, calm down, Pietro," Magneto said, and handed him a pill. "Take this and see if it helps."

Pietro was skeptical, but took the pill anyway. It seemed to work at first, but then . . . he passed out.
Tad looked alarmed. "Ahgoo P'etro die?"

"No, Tad, he's just sleeping off the antihistamine." Magneto said.

"We can't keep him in a coma all the time . . . can we?" Wanda asked.

"No, probably not."
"So what do we do?"

"I might be able to modify the formula to work better with his unique metabolism . . ." Magneto's forte' was engineering, not biochemistry, but he was pretty sure he knew what to do.

He mixed a formula which would keep pace with Pietro's metabolism . . . and it worked just fine.

When the festivities were over, and it was time for Tad and the others to go home, Kitty couldn't resist one last little huggle-wuggle on Tad.

"Merry Christmas, you sweet little baby!"

"Me'y Kismus, Aht Giggiee!" said Tad.

"God bless us, every one!" Todd shouted, and dragged them all together for one great big group hug.

"God help us,you mean," Magneto sighed, feeling himself get squished between Kurt and Fred.

"More eggnog?" Xavier offered.

"Only if it's highly alcoholic."

THE END